An environmental group promoting the health of the Willamette River says it will sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers if the federal agency
doesn't come up with a plan to protect fish listed as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act.

Willamette Riverkeeper, a Portland nonprofit group, sent a letter
to the corps on Wednesday warning of its intent to sue. The letter
accuses the corps of failing to follow the requirements of the
Endangered Species Act. It gives the government agency 60 days to
comply.

The environmental group charges that since 1999, when upper
Willamette River spring chinook and steelhead were listed as threatened
by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the corps has had an
obligation to determine how the 13 dams on the river affect the fish.

Dams make passage difficult for young fish migrating to the ocean
and subsequently block fish returning from the ocean in search of
streams where they can reproduce.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Matt Rabe said he
hadn't seen the letter on Wednesday afternoon and couldn't
comment on it.

National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Janet Spears wrote in
an e-mail that the corps had submitted a biological assessment in 2000
and that the agencies have been consulting since then. She said the
issues are complicated because they also involve other threatened
species - bull trout and Oregon chub as well as terrestrial plant and
animal species. There is no set timetable for agencies to comply with
the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, she said. But agencies
must consult when any action they take has an effect on threatened or
endangered fish, she wrote.

Willamette Riverkeeper is better known as an agency that monitors
the well-being of the river, promotes riparian restoration activities
and conducts an annual four-day canoe trip known as Paddle Oregon.

Filing a lawsuit against a federal agency that it has worked
closely with in the past is an unusual step, said Executive Director
Travis Williams.

"The reality is we have been doing outreach and having
discussions with the corps, and while legal means are not the first tool
in the toolbox, in this case, we're eight years out and the amount
of progress we have to show could be much more," he said.

Williams said the declining populations of native stocks of spring
chinook and steelhead indicate how tough the dams have been on them.

"These are fish that have thrived here for thousands of years.
It should tell us how these systems are functioning that these fish can
no longer do that," he said.

Private dam operators in the East have had to reapply for federal
permits in recent years and have found a way to balance electricity
production and flood control needs while still improving fish passage,
Williams said. "If the corps has the capacity to think big and work
with folks on habitat restoration in the Willamette, that could have a
big effect," he said. "We're talking about a host of
actions that could be really beneficial for fish."

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